How THE 182 got me thinking....

To complete my broadcasting degree I needed to take THE 182 or some other class in the speech communication program that sounded more boring than the graduation practice rehearsal scheduled 8 days from tomorrow.

When I walked into THE 182 for the first time nine weeks ago I thought I was going to be miserable. But throughout the course of the term I've grown to appreciate the art of both acting and theater. In fact, I've actually enjoyed memorizing my lines and preparing for my monologue coming up on Monday.

I don't really know how to explain it but I may have a hinch. Enjoying my theater class the last couple of weeks made me think of how else I've changed over these past four years at NCC.

I remember the fall of 2010 vividly unlike most graduating seniors. In high school I hated writing papers and school in general, to be honest. Now I enjoy writing and school almost as much as Twitter and broadcasting sports games (the key word there being almost). But after attending a Chronicle meeting three weeks into the fall term of my freshman I've loved writing more than I could have ever have possibly imagined. 

Another area I've grown in over the past four years is my vocabulary. Now I'm not one of the brighter students here at NCC but I have noticed that my vocabulary has become much more broad and concise over the past four years. Obviously the plethora of broadcasting and English classes I've taken over the past four years have had a lot to do with my increased vocabulary, but I think it's more than that. Specifically, I think my desire to be more aware in today's world changed that too, and for that I decided to read more than I used to, especially articles posted on various social media networks, especially on Twitter. 

I could go into detail about 10-15 more aspects that I've noticed change in myself, but for the sake of it being  6:30 on a Wednesday night during week 10 of my senior year I'm only going to talk about one more. 

That area is my music interests. When I came to North Central I really only enjoyed modern day hip-hop/rap music. But that has changed. 

Now hip-hop/rap has always been my favorite music genre and it always will be but I've also grown to appreciate the hip-hop/rap genre in a broader sense since being in college. In fact, I actually like 90’s hip-hop/rap more than  I like modern hip-hop/rap. 2Pac, NWA and Notorious have had a lot to do with that. But I don't just like hip-hop/rap. Maybe it’s a phase, I don’t know.  

In fact, I've grown to enjoy R&B, alternative, vintage rock, classic rock and punk rock over the last four years too. These were genres I couldn’t stand four years ago and for that I can thank WONC, one of two student-organizations I've been involved with since my freshman year and one of my best friends and current roommate, Matt Meindl. 

WONC has such a great variety of pure rock in its catalog and if you've never tuned into NCC's student run station, WONC/89.1 FM, then all I can say is that you've missed out. As for Meindl, I can honestly say I don't know anyone at this school that knows such a wide range of music genres better than him. His knowledge of the music industry will blow your mind but not nearly as much as his drinking tolerance will and I'm being 100% serious. 

My intentions with this journal entry weren't to focus on me, but more importantly, I wanted you as a reader to think about how you've changed since being college, regardless of how long you've been in it for. I bet if you put some thought into it, you'll realize you've changed a lot.

The next sports dynasty: Miami Heat, San Francisco Giants or Blackhawks?

To this day I wish as a child I paid more attention to the Bulls, particularly in the 90's. I have a bunch of photos in my room, cards, posters and all other sorts of memorabilia in my room about how good the Bulls really were. Unfortunately I was seven years old when the Bulls one their last title in 1998, completing a span of six titles in eight years. 

So as I continue write this post, it got me thinking of other sports dynasties since the Bulls did it back in the 90's. Two come to mind write off the bat, New England and New York.

Under manager Joe Torre the Yankees were as good as they've ever been, and that's saying a lot, since they have the most World Series titles over the course of MLB. From 1998-2000 the Yankees won 3 World Series in a row, something the Miami Heat are looking to do in the NBA this year. 

Now unlike the Bulls run, I vaguely remember the Yankees run from 1998-2000. Whether it be Scott Broshious, the captain, Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera coming through in the clutch for NY, that was as good of a baseball team I've ever said. The list goes on of good players NY had, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Paul O'Neill, Chuck Knoblack, Hideki Matsui, Bernie Williams, etc. And whether you absolutely hated New York for how great they were, you have to appreciate them.

Now switching to football, the New England Patriots under Tom Brady and Bill Belichick were as much of an underdog in their first super bowl than any team in the NFL. Brady was the backup for the most of the 2002 season until Drew Bledsoe got another concussion. But Brady and Patriots never looked back. 

In '02 they took down Marshall Faulk and the St. Louis Rams for Belichick's first title as a NFL head coach. And then two years later, the Patriots won the Super Bowl again in 04 by a final of 32-29 followed by a 24-21 Super Bowl win in 05 over Philadelphia.

But since New England's run, sports has yet to see a dynasty. However, the Giants in MLB have won two World Series in the past four years, but will need a lot to go there way to win their third WS title in five years. 

As for the Miami Heat, they're the closest team IMO to being a dynasty. They're looking for their third NBA Title in a row and as long as they have a healthy LeBron James, I don't see any team getting in his way. Now you may have noticed that I said his, not the Heat. If LeBron does indeed decide to leave Miami, which I don't see happening, but definitely is possible, the Big 3 Era in South Beach will more than likely be over.

Even if Wade and Bosh stay in Miami, I can't see LeBron and a mediocre core, wherever that core may be located, not winning a title. 

As for the Blackhawks, they might not win their second Stanley Cup in a row, but they sure as hell have the best chance of any professional team in sports of winning a plethora of titles in a short span, ranging from four to 10. This Hawks squad is younger than any top team in professional sports, have won before, have two of the top 10 players in the game in Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, both of whom are under 25, and also have a top tier head coach in Joel Quenneville.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see. 

Entourage (The Movie)

Watching just about every episode of The Entourage this school year, has me very excited for Entourage (The Movie) in 2015.

I like very few drama series but Entourage probably is number one on my list along with ESPN 30 for 30. The part that I like the most is the fact that it's a biography about Mark Wahlberg, however, he's not playing himself.

Now while it's clear episodes are exaggerated, it is still hilarious. In fact, as a member of the audience member, you wonder, at least I wonder, if this is what the life of a celebrity is like.

Another reason I love the show is because of the actors. None of them are big actors, not E,Vince, Turtle, Johnny Drama, Arie, but they all play their roles extremely well, especially Arie. I argue this is because of two reasons. The first is because it shows how good directing can make average actors good. And guess who's the director? Mark Wahlberg.

In addition, the last episode of the final season is a cliff hanger. Arie Gold, arguably the No.1 agent in the movie industry, is offered the reign to the No.1 agency in the move industry. Furthermore, Vincent Chase is about to get married and is looking for the lead role in the new year's projected top movie.

To conclude, it seems most series that end up making a movie either hit it out of the ballpark in terms of revenue or sink lower than they ever anticipated. I have a bias opinion, since I'm such a big fan of the series but I don't anticipate it falling short of expectations.

Breaking down the 2014 Chicago Bears Draft Choices

The NFL draft is one of my favorite parts of the NFL season, if not my favorite. For teams that are coming off a 4-12 season a year ago or for a team like the Bears that finished 8-8, the draft gives its fans a chance to believe this upcoming season is the year, even if it isn't. Despite being a Bears fan, I have to say I really liked what the Bears did in the 2014 draft and am leaning towards putting them down as the front runner to win the NFC North. 

Before the draft started, I looked at what positions I thought the Bears needed to address. First and foremost, the defensive backfield, specifically safety. Chris Conte, Major Wright and Craig Steltz clearly didn't get the job done and in my opinion were the the worst safety tandem in the NFL. Obviously losing defensive tackles Henry Melton and Nate Collins, linebackers Lance Briggs and D.J. Williams and cornerback Charles Tilliman didn't make their job any easier, but to be kind, their production was far below par. 

The next position I thought the Bears desperately needed to address was the defensive line. While signing star defensive ends Lamar Houston and Jared Allen give the Bears a whole lot more options in how they blitz opposing teams, two defensive ends can't make up an entire defensive front, depth is a must. 

And finally, offensive line. The Bears O-Line was as good as I've ever seen in my years as a Bears fan, and I think head coach Marc Trestman and offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Aaron Kromer had a lot to do with that. But the bottom line is center/guard Roberto Garza isn't getting any younger and neither are Matt Slauson nor Jermon Bushrod. 

The Bears first round draft pick (14th) was cornerback Kyle Fuller, arguably the second best cornerback in the draft behind Justin Gilbert, who was taken No. 8 overall by the Cleveland Browns. Personally, I thought the Bears were going to trade back and obtain two extra picks but instead general manager Phil Emery saw the man he wanted and took him. While I'm not an expert by any means and haven't seen much film on any of the Bears choices, I have done my fair share of research on how scouts have evaluated the majority of the players selected in last week’s draft. Fuller won't start this year unless either Tillman or Jennings go down but wouldn't be surprised to see him compete for the nickelback spot. Kalvin Hayden was solid in 2012, but missed all of last year and isn't getting any younger while Isiah Frey was a disappointment as the nickelback this past year. It should be a good battle and ultimately see Fuller working his way into the nickel spot as the regular season progresses.

Fuller can tackle, and is a bigger corner than most, a growing trend now in the NFL, especially with the league being a pass first league. While I don't see Fuller being a shutdown corner against the top teams No.1 WR, I see Fuller forcing a lot of turnovers. He hits hard, takes good angles, wraps up when he has to and goes for the ball when he can, something he'll get even better at having the opportunity to learn from Tillman and pro bowl corner Tim Jennings. 

In the second and third round, the Bears selected a pair of defensive tackles in LSU's Ergo Ferguson and Arizona State's Will Sutton. Both are extremely big and will have an opportunity to compete in the defensive line rotation. While the Bears say they're a 4-3 base defense, I can't help but wonder if that'll remain intact after this year. 

Ferguson and Sutton should be better than expected rushing the passer due to playing alongside Allen and Houston, but where I think they'll stand out is against the run, as the 3-technique. In today's ago for DT's if you can't take out the fullback against the run, trip up the runningback, or shed off a double-team you're going to have a tough time remaining on a NFL roster. But this is where I think Ferguson and Sutton will be most successful at. Stephen Paea and Nate Collins have been injury prone over the course of their NFL careers and Israel Idonjie is simply too small to line up over the center consistently, giving Sutton and Ferguson their fair share of opportunities to play DT.

In the fourth round the Bears moved up to take Minnesota safety, Brock Vereen at 131 and selected Arizona runningback Ka'deem Carey. Let me first start with Vereen, an average sized safety who has played against multiple offenses ranging from the I-formation and the spread throughout his Big Ten playing career. That will help Vereen a lot, who flashes good athletic ability from time-to-time but struggles against the deep due to his poor hip flexibility. This is something Vereen must improve in order to find himself in the mix at safety and on special teams. As for Carey, let me be honest, I'm not in love with the pick but I understood it. Carey is a big runningback at around 215 pounds, but is slow and has had character issues in the past. That being said, I see Carey as a goal line back and someone who'll be in the backfield on 3rd and long to help protect Cutler against the rush. While the Bears really only have Matt Forte and Michael Ford at runningback as of now, I'm not convinced Carey is a lock to make the Bears 53-man regular season roster. 

Due to trading up to select Vereen in the fourth round, the Bears didn't have a fifth round pick, but did possess two sixth round draft choices. With those two picks, the Bears drafted San Jose State quarterback David Fales and Miami punter Pat O'Donnell. Fales fits Trestman's offense as good as well as late round quarterback in this year's draft. 

While Fales doesn't have the strongest arm or quickest feet, Fales is extremely accurate, reads defenses and his progressions well and aware in the pocket. Trestman's offense is predicated on getting the ball out quickly and hitting the Bears weapons in stride, something Fales has shown he's been able to do over the course of his collegiate career. As for O'Donnell, it'll be interesting to see if he wins the starting job. Adam Podlesh has been a disappointment since replacing Bears great Brad Maynard. O'Donnell isn't your typical "scrawny punter." O'Donnell benched 225 pouns 23 times, just one less rep than Bears DT's Ferguson and Sutton. 

In the seventh round the Bears selected offensive tackle Charles Leno Jr. and as long as he's not as bad as former Bears seventh round draft choice in left tackle J'Marcus Webb then he'll be ok. I'm not sure Leno will make the Bears opening day roster but I do see him sticking on the Bears practice roster. Leno can play both tackle and guard, giving him an advantage over most O-Lineman. However Leno is undersized at 303 pounds and must get stronger to compete at the next level. If he does find his way onto the Bears regular season roster, I can only see it as a reserve lineman who may get in on Field Goal. 

Overall I'd give the Bears draft a B+ grade. Emery continues to prove he knows how to evaluate talent but is 1/2 in his stint as the Bears GM with his first round selections. How well Fuller does in the next three years will dictate how good this draft really was, even if the Bears other selections pan out to be better than expected. 

Addressing Cyber-Bullying?

Cyber-bullying is an issue that I'm quite unfamiliar with but have unfortunately read more and more about as of late. I'm sure there are multiple approaches to addressing this issue but have heard very few solutions to this problem.

As I do every morning when I roll out of bed, I grabbed my phone and read my twitter feed. As I was reading my feed, I came across an article via csnchicago.com about Bears right guard Kyle Long addressing bullying at the elementary school level. In fact, Long starting riding the bus with an elementary school student who has been bullied all school year.

As I continued reading, I came across photos of Long with the elementary school boy at Chucke- Cheeses, on the bus, on the school playground, etc. At first, I thought how great this was to addressing cyber-bullying, but the more and more I thought about it, I thought this was the worst possible way of handling the situation. In fact, it makes the bullied kid even more pron to bullies. Let's face it, the kids dad and even older brother, or even Kyle Long, can't be around the kid 24/7.

One solution I suggest to limiting online bullying, is by making parents' attendance to at least 3 sessions a year to how bullying effects children and what solutions have worked best for alleviating students who have been bullied, but more importantly to stop children from being bullied.

Clearly punishing the bully doesn't work, in fact it just makes them want to bully kids more. Most bullies are ones that are neglected by their parents and their parents are usually not the best role models. Either they spoil their children or never give them the attention they deserve.

To conclude, bullying is a serious issue that is very delicate. While there are no answers to how to solve this chronic dilemma, adults, and even children need to be aware of what the wrong tactics to bullying are.

Will cybervetting ever be illegal?

It's an interesting topic for me to discuss in particular since I'm a graduating in June, and as many, am currently looking for full-time employment after graduation. Without taking long to cut to the chase, my answer is no, and if it does eventually become illegal, I don't see it happening anytime soon. 

I've never been one to post inappropriate statuses or upload photos that may set a bad image for me on either Facebook or Twitter but I definitely know of close friends and even family members who do. However, I have been tagged in photos that I wasn't exactly thrilled about seeing the next morning (sometimes the afternoon); depending on how much I had to drink the previous night on both Twitter and Facebook. 

No matter how funny the photo may look, I'm never happy to see it on social media networking sites I'm on, especially Twitter. I say specifically Twitter because my ultimate dream job is to be a sports broadcaster for either a professional radio station or professional sports team and in order for me to reach that goal, twitter is essential. So to say the least, I wasn't exactly thrilled when I saw a tweet of my 21st birthday that stated, "If you're not as blacked out as @JaredShlensky then you're doing something wrong." It sets a bad image for me and any future employer that wants to hire me. For the record, I gave that friend of mine an earful after they posted that.

If you don't believe me, ask any broadcast communications major on campus who is affiliated with the school's radio station, WONC, 89.1FM about how important twitter is in our field. And if you don't believe me or them, take it a whole step further and ask the general manager of WONC and broadcast communications professor on campus, John Madormo. I'm quite confident he'll agree with me. That being said, my twitter page is strictly professional and can't stand it when my close friends tweet about my social life experiences. 

Now you may be thinking, why don't you just make your Facebook page and Twitter handle settings private or have two twitter handles? That's definitely a fair question and am more than happy to answer it for you. My Facebook settings are set to private but not my twitter handle. 

This is because my tweets relate to my hopeful occupation in sports broadcasting and in order to be recognized by credible broadcasters, journalists, radio stations, newspaper publications, etc., I need my tweets to be able to be viewed by anyone; therefore making my twitter handle private is meaningless. My tweets aren't about how bad my day is going or about how upset I am with the food on campus, instead they consist of links to sports articles I've written for the school's newspaper, The Chronicle/NCClinked.com, interviews I've uploaded to sound cloud pertaining to NCC athletics, opinions I have about live sporting games, player performances, coaching strategies, broadcasters analysis, etc.  

I've also been asked, why don’t you just have two twitter handles, one strictly professional, and one pertaining to your social life? Again, another fair question, and my answer is, I don’t have any plans or interest of tweeting about my life or any inappropriate activities I may encounter down the road. Therefore I just don’t see any point of having two twitter handles, in fact, it just sounds like more work for me, something I don’t have time for, at least not right now.

My profile photo on Twitter isn't me posing with my two buddies with me at the bar last week, instead, it's me in a suit, hoping to showcase myself as a mature, intelligent and respectable human being. Now you may be wondering, what the hell do your personal experiences have anything to do with the question you proposed back in the beginning. My answer to you is well, it has everything to do with it. 

If you're going to post inappropriate pictures and say inappropriate things via social media, you need to be prepared to accept the consequences for your actions, even if that means a future employer not choosing to hire you, including me. However, I do feel that if someone posts a status about your wild 21st birthday or tags you in a picture that you personally didn't upload, then employers shouldn't be allowed to use that against you. I understand that it may not be the way employers look at it or the way current laws are laid out, but I'd argue that it's a fair assessment of what future employers should and shouldn't be allowed to use against you. 

End of senior year is bitter sweet

For all you underclassmen anxiously awaiting to be done with undergrad at NCC, all I can say is hold up. Now I have to admit back in the fall I thought I'd be so excited for the year to end but now I just want the process to go by as slow as possible.

Both my parents and two older brothers told me that no experience in life is nearly as good as college, but I didn't realize that they were spot on until the past couple of weeks. I mean it makes sense: few priorities, can sleep into 10 a.m.just about everyday (at least I can), drink multiple days of the week, etc.

I compare high school to college and can honestly say these past four years flew by, unlike my high school years. From the days of FYE to living in Seager, (those were the days) to now, it's mind blowing to realize it's coming to an end.

I thought this spring term was going to be a blow off, I mean I'm only taking 8 credits. But with multiple job interviews as of late I really haven't had the luxury to party like a lot of my peers have had. But for the past couple of weeks every time I'm about to hit the hay my mind wonders, and somehow, I always reflect on how this is it!!! Even if I choose to pursue graduate school next year, I know it won't compare to how much fun undergrad was.

For the other seniors in class, I'm sorry if reading this makes you sad or brings tears to your eyes. And for you underclassmen, soak it in. Go out and have fun, even a little too much from time-to-time, because as I realize these days are coming to an end, I realize the best days of my life are too.